A Lonely Valentines Day
by theworldofbooks
Summary: Lily and James on Valentines Day. A one shot, and my first Harry Potter story.


Slowly, I opened my eyes and sat up in my bed. Squinting, I could barely make out an outline of roses placed on the table next to my bed. Every year. Every year Potter sends me exactly 13 white roses on the worst day of the year. Valentines Day. Every year I get the roses, and every year they are tossed out of the window. They have been sitting on my table for exactly 12 hours.

I hadn't had the heart to throw them out this year. James and I had a special relationship. For the last years I had hated him. He was arrogant, and a bully. I couldn't understand what people found attractive about him. Then came Seventh Year. He became Head Boy and I became Head Girl. As we started working together, I realized that there was more to James than the selfish teenage boy who picked on Slytherins.

There was layers to James that I had never experienced before. When he wanted to, he could be kind, and sweet and generous. We had this connection that I had never experienced before. He knew what I needed before I did. It was like he could read my mind. On my worse days, he was able to make me smile when no one else could. When I didn't want to run a meeting, he would take it on by himself. When I am in a mood, he patiently waits until I bring myself out of it, and then pretends like it never happens.

We made a good team, and it killed me. I'm alone, again, on Valentines Day, and it's my own fault. At the beginning of the year, James had promised me that he would never ask me out again. Now that was the only thing I wanted him to do. If you had asked me last year, or even last month, James Potter wouldn't have been my first choice for boyfriend, as of today, I can only picture myself with him.

I can't stop myself from getting lost in his hazel eyes, or noticing that when he smiles it reaches his eyes. When he gets nervous or embarrassed, he runs his hands through his wild hair that can never stay down. No matter where he goes, it looks like he had just stepped off of his broom. When he talks about something that he's passionate about, his eyes sparkle. The way he protects the younger students when they are being bullied by Slytherins, is something that I have never seen before, and it's amazing. Once upon a time, I only knew James Potter as a bully. Today, he's a knight in shining armor. I hadn't noticed before the way he would stand up for the younger students. He gets this look that I only used to see when he was pranking people.

James has matured in the last 5 months. I never thought that it was possible for James Potter to be mature. I was positive that him and Sirius would be children until they were 30. Now, I'm not too sure.

Slowly, I raised my arms over my head, and stretched out my legs and back. I moved my neck from side to side, and wiggled my toes. Still half asleep, I walked to the table with the roses. Gently, like it was made of glass, I picked up one of the roses. These weren't just roses. The fact that I hadn't thrown them out, symbolized the way our relationship has grown in the last year. We had learned to be around each other without picking a fight. You could even say that we are friends, but I think I want to be more than friends.

The rest of the room was empty, besides my owl, Luna, sleeping in her cage. I wasn't expecting anyone to be here, everyone was in the Great Hall for the feast. I was dressed in my muggle clothes that I had brought from home, instead of my school robes that I normally wear. I went through my trunk and found my favorite sweatshirt. I had gotten it on a road trip with my parents. On the front of the sweatshirt in shiny red letters, spelled the words, "Proud to be English," the back had a picture of the British flag.

I figured that I would get a head start on my Transfiguration essay, while the common room is empty. With my quill and parchment in my mouth, I walked down the stairs into the common room, while twisting my hair into a messy bun on top of my hair. What used to be bangs now covered my eyes in random strands of red. I pushed the strands out of my eyes, and was surprised to see the shape of a figure sleeping on the couch.

When I saw the unruly hair sticking up in all different directions, immediately, I knew that it was James. He hadn't realized that there was someone else in the room, so I presumed that it was a good time as any to get him back for all the years of pranks that he's played on me. I quietly placed my parchment and quill on the ground, and pulled my wand out of my back pocket. I conjured up a bowl of chocolate syrup, and muttered the incantation. The bowl flew out of my hands and over to the couch. It stopped right above James' head, and poured itself out.

For someone who had been asleep, he was definitely awake now. As soon as the water had touched him, James had jumped off the couch soaking "wet". His clothes were dripping chocolate all over the couch so he couldn't even wipe his glasses off. He looked completely stunned, his eyes were wide and his mouth was hanging open. Seeing him, I fell on the floor in hysterics. I was crouched in a ball, clutching my stomach, when I saw James wipe his glasses off on the pillow resting on the couch. My vision was blurred because of the tears that were welling up in my eyes, but I was able to see James walk over to me, with his clothes sticking onto his body. I was now able to see the chocolate all over his body, his hair, his sweater, and even his shoes.

"Lilly?" He obviously wasn't expecting me to have been the culprit. I controlled myself enough to stand up, and a grin spread across my face. He began to talk, but he wasn't forming coherent sentences.

" James, I would love if you could speak in English, because that's all I know."

" You poured chocolate on me," he said this as a statement, not as a question.

Again, I started to grin like a fool. " I figured that now we're even." He looked like he was remembering the way we met on the train.

"That was all Sirius' idea!"

"Okay, sure Potter."

"Well how else was I supposed to talk to you? Even at the age eleven, I knew that I had a crush on you." That took me by surprise. We hadn't talked about James' crush on me all year. This could go two ways. One, I could use this to start an argument, or two I could push our friendship to something more.

"You had a crush on me? I thought all those times you were asking me out was just a way to get attention," I said sarcastically.

"Wow, Lils, that hurt," he said dramatically, clutching his chest to add affect. "You do realize, that no one gets away with pranking a Marauder." All the excitement left my body when he said this. I could tell by the tone of his voice that he was serious. A devilish smirk appeared on his face, and I knew that I should probably start running. Like I said before, he could read my mind, and his arms were around my waist. His sticky body was pressed against my back, and I started to shriek.

"James Potter! Let go of me right now!"

"Or what? You'll give me detention? Take away points? Do your worse Evans." We both knew that since James became head boy, I held no power over him. I tried to pull away, but that only made me slip on the chocolate that had spilled onto the floor, and we both cam crashing down. I fell first, and James came second, falling on top of me. We were pressed together on the floor, so close that our face almost touched. I could feel his breath on my face, and he was looking straight into my eyes. I swear I could feel his heart beating as fast as mine.

"Sorry," he grunted, and pushed himself off of me. Instantly, I could feel the heat that was there when he was on top of me, leave the room. James held his hand out, and I grabbed it, pulling myself up. When I was up, I let my hand linger in his, and then pulled it away when I noticed my face get hot. I felt better when I saw that his face was red too.

His hand went through his hair and then it rubbed the back of his neck. All I could think about is how I wished I could run my hands through his hair. I guess I was staring at him, because he started to shift around uncomfortably.

"So why aren't you at the Valentines Day Feast?"

"I'm not really into the whole Valentines Day. I mean I'm all for celebrating love, but Valentines Day is just a day for the stores. There is nothing special about this day. I don't understand why girls put guys through the stress of trying to make the day special. Why would someone want to celebrate their relationship on the same day that everyone else does? It just doesn't make sense. What?" He was staring at me like I was an alien. I could feel the air slowly getting heavier.

"Nothing. It's just I've never heard a girl say that she hates Valentines Day before. I thought that it was every girl's dream to have a date on the most romantic day of the year."

"Oh, it is. It's just not mine. Its not like I could get a date anyway." I looked down at the ground. That last sentence wasn't supposed to come out. I don't think I could get anymore embarrassed, that is, until he started laughing. He kept laughing, but stopped when he looked up at me.

"Merlin's beard, you're not serious are you?" I looked at him, our minds connected, and he was able to realize that I was confused because he started to explain. " I mean, do you know how many guys wanted to ask you out?"

"Obviously you're wrong because none of them did." I swear, I heard him snort.

"Merlin Lily, do you know that while you're gorgeous, you are also terrifying. For the last week, at least 7 guys have been talking about how they wanted to ask you out, but you scare the hell out of them. None of them wanted to be turned down the way you turned me down. None of them have the guts that I did." There's that arrogance again.

"Did? Gorgeous?"

"Well, I mean… you know… we… I… what I meant was…"

"Like I said James, English please," I said quoting myself from earlier. He refused to look up from the ground. The fact that we were both sticky, and covered in chocolate was bothering me. While I let him gather his thoughts, I mumbled the spell, and the chocolate disappeared.

"Thanks," he said. No way was I letting him get out of this.

"You just called me gorgeous. " He let out a sigh, and motioned to the couch.

"Yeah, I did. I wasn't planning on telling you that. Well now I guess it's out there."

"You think I'm pretty?" Honestly, I wasn't asking just to hear it again, I was making sure that I hear him right. No guy, besides my dad, has ever called me pretty before. I would call myself average at best, pretty maybe, but gorgeous was pushing it. People usually stayed away from me because generally red hair meant a hot temper came along with it. The red hair made the freckles on my face stand, and without mascara, it looked like my eyes were on fire. My green eyes clashed with my red hair, making every color but black, make me look awful.

"Lily, for someone who is at the top of her class, you really are stupid." I couldn't tell if that was a compliment or an insult. " I mean, you're beautiful. Look at you. You're different from all the other girls, which makes you special. Every other girl has blonde hair, but they're all the same. You're red hair is what made me notice you in the first place. That and the fact that you weren't afraid to call me out on every stupid move that I made."

I couldn't believe what he was saying to me. I could feel my throat getting tight, and I had to fight back the tears that were beginning to well in my eyes. I wanted to say something, but I didn't know what to say, and I'm pretty sure if I did start talking, the tears would start coming. " Thank you. Not just for saying all the sweet stuff, but for changing. The James Potter I knew last year, wouldn't have been able to say that without making a joke at the end." That put a smile on his face, and I can't tell you why but on mine too.

"Yeah, well I'm not the same James Potter I was last year."

"You're right, you're not. I think I like this one better."

"Well considering that you hated me last year, and now we can have a civil conversation, that's progress."

" You still haven't explained the 'did' part of your rant." His hand went to the back of his neck again. A piece of his messy hair fell into his eyes, and I couldn't help myself. The next thing I knew my hand sprouted a mind of its own, and was pushing his hair away from his face.

Feeling my face grow warm, I pulled my hand back, and tucked it in my pocket. He let out a sigh, and I let him gather his thoughts before he explained.

"Lily, I promised you that I wouldn't ask you out, and I've kept that promise. In September, when I found out that you were Head Girl, I couldn't have been happier. I thought that this was finally my chance to get to know you, to show you that I wasn't just that arrogant toe-rag that you thought I was. Then I thought that the one way to show you this, that I've matured, was to be your friend, to stop pinning after you. I figured that it would be enough just to be your friend. I promised you that I would stop trying to be more than friends with you, and I planned on keeping that promise. But know, being your friend isn't enough. You don't understand how badly I wanted to be more than just friends with you. If we were in this position last year, trust me, I would have been standing in the middle of the Great Hall, professing my love for you," this got a laugh out of me, which suppressed the sob that almost escaped my mouth. " But this isn't last year, this is now, this is today. Right now, the thing that means the most to me is you. You, and your friendship. I can't even imagine going through 7th Year without you, being Head Boy without having the most amazing Head Girl by my side. I can't imagine not being friends with you, I love being your friend, and I don't want to ruin that by asking you out."

"You wouldn't," the words were released from my mouth before I knew what I was saying. I closed my eyes, and took a deep breath. When I opened them again, he was staring at me. His face was pale white, and his eyes were wide. It looked as if all the blood has been drained from his body.

"Well say something," I said, as quietly as if I didn't want him to hear it, so that he couldn't answer. If he couldn't answer, then I couldn't get hurt.

"What did you say?" He said this barely choking out the words.

"I said that if you ask me out, you wouldn't ruin our friendship." The habit that I had only a few minutes earlier, was not helping my nerves. Only one hand was in his hair, which was a good sign, two meant that he was very stressed and was about to explode, but still hand in hair was not a good sign.

"Lily, will you go out with me." Whatever I was expecting to hear, it wasn't those words. Now it was my turn to be shocked. It wasn't the first time that I had been asked this question, especially by James Potter, but it was the first time I was actually considering the fact that were two options. I could say no, and ruin our friendship, or I could say yes and something amazing might come out of if.

I guess that I had took longer than James thought I would have coming up with the response, because he started to apologize to me. "Sorry. I'm sorry, I shouldn't have asked, I just thought you know, I should try." He turned away, and was about to walk up the stairs when I grabbed his wrist.

"James. Wait." He turned around to face me. That damn hair was in his eyes again, so this time, I confidently pushed it out of his eyes, and let me hand rest on his cheek. He stared at with me with such compassion, and such longing that it made my heart race. I have never been looked at in such a loving way in my life, and I loved the feeling.

I let my hand linger a little while longer, before I answered his question. "James, I would love to go out with you." Just like me, that was not what he was expecting me to say. The shock was gone within a matter of seconds because we was grinning like a child on Christmas, or a Marauder after pulling off a rather successful prank. He took me in his arms, and spun me around. When he put me down, he put his hands on my face like I had earlier, and just smiled at me. In the seventeen years that I have been alive, I have never seen someone look so happy before. Unable to bare the distance between us anymore, I moved my face towards his, and pressed our lips together.

Kissing James was unlike anything I could have ever imagined. They say that when you meet the someone that is supposed to be "the one", you will here bells. Well I didn't get bells, I got a common room full of noisy students, including none other than Sirius Black. Not breaking apart from James, I could hear whooping coming from the background, and could only guess that it was coming from Sirius.

When we finally did pull apart, James was still smiling. I knew that my face was reflecting the happiness that appeared on his face. "Thank you Lily, for making me the happiest person on the earth at this moment." I couldn't help but smile even more.

"I think I'm starting to like Valentines Day."

A/N:

So this is a one shot I came up with since Valentines Day is coming up soon. Leave a review and tell me what you thought of it please? So I was thinking about writing a story about James and his family during his time at Hogwarts. Tell me what you think about that.


End file.
